Full-scale purchases of Italian IVECO LMV armored vehicles could have a catastrophic effect on the combat readiness of most formations of the ground forces and airborne forces. After all, it was planned to purchase three thousand of these machines. Moreover, purchasing LMV, the then military leadership rejected a large number of domestic military equipment, which successfully passed tests or, as they say, was "on the way." So in 2010, the almost finished new generation tank Object 195, also known as the T-95, the modernization of existing tanks on the T-72B2 "Slingshot" and "Burlak" theme, and a double-barreled version of the self-propelled artillery unit "Coalition" were rejected.
Lynx at the Army 2015 forum in Kubinka. What for?
BMD-4M, 2S25 Sprut, T-90A, BTR-90, BMP-3 and BMPT were also blacklisted. It was planned to stop purchasing domestic armored vehicles "Tiger".
There were even statements that the army would not buy anything domestic until 2015. The impression was that the then-Defense Ministry official was not interested in how the Russian defense industry would survive and whether it would survive at all. But they launched an unusual activity in the "western direction". In addition to IVECO LMV, the Airborne Forces began to "match" the long-outdated IVECO VM 90. It was reported that not only the Airborne Special Forces, but also entire airborne assault brigades, as well as reconnaissance units of the ground forces, would be equipped with "Lynx".
The Russian army was supplied with vehicles on which the shortcomings identified in Afghanistan were not eliminated
Mass purchases of foreign sniper weapons began. Wheeled tank destroyers "Centauro" and BMP "Freccia" were taken for testing. Allegedly, this technique was taken only for acquaintance, but, nevertheless, information was leaked to the media that a purchase of a license for the production of Italian cars at domestic enterprises was being prepared.
True, skeptics joked that the same thing that happened to the Lynxes would probably repeat itself with the "Centauro": they would give a sonorous Russian name, and then everything would be limited to screwdriver assembly of the machine kits sent from abroad and screwing on the plates with these same Russian names. There will be nothing of its own.
Undercarriage elements. Some parts show rust
Also, according to some reports, together with the French, work began on the modernization of the engine-transmission compartment of the T-72 tank, there were rumors about an Italian engine for the Armata tank. There were statements about a possible appeal to France with a request to supply CAESAR self-propelled guns and to the Finns about the desire to acquire 500 Patria armored personnel carriers. Plus, of course, the loudest and ingloriously ended cooperation project - UDC "Mistral".
All these ingenious maneuvers, I must say, very often met with the approval of those who sympathized with the reformers in the defense department. They say that "the domestic defense industry cannot create anything competitive," and the West is our friend, and there is nothing shameful that the military equipment of the "friendly" NATO bloc will go en masse.
The inside of the car is very cramped
One got the impression that the defense department had absolutely no idea that there might be a complication in relations with Europe and the United States, that a crisis might occur in Ukraine or in another place where the interests of NATO and Russia would clash.
There are opinions that at that time they expected a sharp aggravation of the situation in the former Soviet Central Asia, after the start of the withdrawal of Western coalition forces from Afghanistan. And a possible military conflict in this region was seen as a repetition of what had happened there since 2001. So to fight the Taliban already in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, IVECO LMV, "Centauro", CAESAR and other Western "toys" should have been massively needed.
Driver's seat
But it seems that our strategists miscalculated, the situation in Central Asia is still relatively stable, the Taliban is mired in a showdown with even more bloodthirsty terrorists. But trouble came, as always, from where they did not expect. Relations with the West have escalated almost to the point of the Cold War. One could only imagine what was the level of combat readiness of the formations that massively switched to Western technology, how many hundreds of foreign-made vehicles would currently be in parks without spare parts. It is good that the UVZ team managed to "break through" the budget modernized version of the T-72, and Arzamas - his BTR-82A.
We must pay tribute to the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense, which from the very beginning managed to establish relations with the domestic defense industry. As a result, we now have sufficiently combat-ready troops, and not "forces for conducting police and peacekeeping operations in the Central Asian theater of operations." Although there is still a lot of work to be done: the gentlemen-reformers have managed to do so much.
